Crossing The Line
by ardy1
Summary: A spinoff from Prison Conversations. Sokka runs into the person who helped him and Zuko escape from the Fire Nation prison. One good turn deserves another. Rated for language and concepts.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, I started this little story last summer after my friend Smill took my OC from "Prison Conversations" to heights I hadn't imagined. It occurred to me to think there may have been more than one un-finished story lingering in "PC's" depths. And because I've hit a bit of a brick wall in my other stories, I thought I might be inspired to break through writer's block if I gave my muse another line to gnaw upon.

I imagine this much more along PC's lines – just the two characters' interacting. I hope that will help to keep it defined and flowing.

Disclaimer: Who me? Attempting to claim ownership or generate income therefrom? No chance. So go away and leave me to meander among my delusions…

Crossing the Line: Chapter 1

It was absolutely none of his business, and he was usually pretty good at controlling any urge to satisfy his curiosity about the goings-on in any of the villages through which they traveled. He had learned the hard way to keep his head down and avoid attention. Even in territory still held by the Earth Kingdom, any word of the Avatar or his companions could lead to trouble, if only in the form of delays of one kind or another. He really couldn't afford to be delayed if he was going to rejoin the others in time for the message he carried to have any relevance. A pity they didn't have the advantage of the Fire Nation's messenger birds...

So when he first became aware of the altercation between a pair of soldiers in green and the lone figure in faded but still distinctive red he really _should_ have turned the other direction and walked quickly away. Just because the one in red was female did not mean she couldn't look out for herself; a point that had been made painfully clear to Sokka time and again over the many months since he had left his home at the South Pole. Nevertheless, when one of the soldiers struck the girl and she fell to her knees without getting back up he found himself quickly stepping forward to protest.

"Stay out of it, boy," said one of the men, inserting his body between Sokka and the kneeling woman. "She's Fire Nation, and almost certainly a spy."

"Maybe so, but until you know for sure she's a spy there's no call to hit her like that." Sokka narrowed his eyes, assessing his chances of standing up to these two should it come to that. He noted with relief that neither appeared to be an earth-bender.

"I _said_, stay out of it!" The soldier gave Sokka a hard shove, drawing his sword at the same time.

As he rocked back from the momentum of the blow Sokka pulled his boomerang free of its sheath and the war club from his belt. "Aw, man. You really don't want to do this. Can't you just be nice to the lady?"

Her back was turned to him, and he was pleased to see her starting to rise. Perhaps she hadn't been hurt after all.

"What _are_ you, some kind of Fire Nation sympathizer?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but never got the chance to actually speak.

"He's not! Don't you know who he is? He's the Avatar's friend!" Sokka was stunned as much by the familiar voice as by its revelation. He was also annoyed to see a small crowd had gathered in the street.

"Ling-Ling? What the hell are you doing here?" It simply wasn't possible that the woman at issue was the same prison warden's daughter Sokka had last seen weeks before when he had blown the Fire Nation prison up in the process of breaking out of it. Something which may not have been possible without her help.

"They know each other," "Hey, wait, she's right, I've seen his picture!" "The Avatar? Is he here too?" "What's a friend of the Avatar doing with a Fire Nation spy?" Amid a chorus of similar exclamations Sokka quickly sheathed his boomerang, side-stepped the now thoroughly confused soldier and grabbed the girl's hand.

"Just RUN!"

He dodged through the lightest part of the crowd, dragging the stumbling girl in red behind him. Happily, within a few yards she seemed to get her legs beneath her and proved nimble enough for him to consider a quick detour through the crowded market. Spotting a cart piled high with cabbages, Sokka hooked his club around one of the cart's upright supports as they ran past, jerking it forwards and upsetting the balance of vegetables to tumble into the path of the only two pursuers - the soldiers who had accosted Ling-Ling in the first place. Shrieking vendors fell upon the angry men, and Sokka and the Fire Nation girl disappeared in the confusion.

Sokka was by now quite experienced at evasive tactics, and as they ran he used his club to snag a dark drape of material from yet another cart, and then pulled his companion into an alleyway.

"Don't talk, don't argue. Just get rid of whatever you have to so you're comfortable wearing this and no longer screaming 'Fire Nation' ," he groaned at her raised eyebrow over the amorphous cloth he had brought into the alley with them. Surely Katara would not have complained, although Toph may have objected under her breath to its roughness even as she made do. Girls.

"Honestly, Ling-Ling, I would have thought you were smart enough to figure out to dress more anonymously if you were going into your enemy's territory."

He turned away mostly for privacy's sake, and because he had no desire to witness whatever change in garb the plain warden's daughter might think sufficient to hide her identity. In the meantime, he pulled out the leather thong holding back his hair in its wolf-tail, running his fingers through the loose locks to make them fall on either side of his face. It would occasionally hinder his vision this way, but the uncharacteristic hairstyle would make him less easily recognized, turning him into just another random wanderer from the water tribes. Too bad Ling-Ling had drawn attention to his presence in the first place.

He turned back to her. The red shapeless tunic she had worn had been turned inside-out, its dull grey lining now on the surface. The dark fabric lay discarded on the ground beside her. He shrugged. At least her nationality was no longer obvious to every passerby.

"C'mon. Let's get you out of here."

Without a word she followed him. He was going to be delayed after all, but he couldn't just leave her here. This city on the edge of the front lines in the war had seen its share of Fire Nation attacks in all their brutality, and little in the way of mercy would be offered someone suspected of being a spy. And perhaps she _was_ a spy. Sokka could not imagine what this girl was doing so far from the prison safely ensconced in territory long controlled and settled by her countrymen. It made no sense.

But he did owe her his life and his freedom. So he would see her back on the road to safety for her, even if that meant he had to set foot back in dangerous territory for himself. The others would understand.

As it happened, the road to safety was actually not a road at all. This particular city sat on the banks of one of the largest rivers in the Earth Kingdom, a river that currently defined the boundaries of territory controlled by the opposing parties in the war. Virtually everything north of the this port had been conquered in the name of the Fire Lord, and over the last 20 years or so had been settled here and there by Fire Nation emigrants hampered back home by the lack of land and opportunity. The river here was nearly a mile wide, and there was a faint salt tang on the wind that reminded Sokka that the sea was only a half-day's journey down river. If he could get Ling-Ling across the river he could then be on his way to rejoin his friends fairly quickly.

All they needed was a boat.

The exigencies of efficiency warred against the concerns of safety, leading city fathers to build walls along the shoreline punctuated by many gates, not all of which were equally fortified or adequately manned. From the inside it was hardly more than a few hours' work to assess the more vulnerable of these apertures in a city's defenses. Despite his youth, Sokka was well versed in looking for such vulnerabilities. He didn't bother looking for other options once he had found one to his liking. Having ascertained that Ling-Ling was no better provisioned in money than he was himself, he resigned himself to the need to steal - no, he chose to think of it as commandeering - a boat under cover of darkness.

Near the chosen gate along the wall they found an embrasure of sufficient depth and width to give them a comfortable few hours waiting, complete with a small hole in the wall at slightly over shoulder-height for Sokka - a perfect niche for loosing arrows for a full-grown man - and deep, low benches hewn out of the surrounding stonework.

"Where is he now? How is he?" She didn't bother specifying whom she meant, and he didn't need clarification.

"No idea."

"You left together."

"So? Why would we stick together, anyway? He's a damned fire-bender, my enemy, remember?"

"His father condemned him. Are you so sure he's your enemy?"

"I thought his identity was supposed to be unknown - the Fire Lord not wanting to be embarrassed, or accidentally turn his son into some kind of martyr for his enemies to rally round. Oh, but wait, Zuko told you himself."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I knew who he was. There were wanted posters with his picture, and besides, the prison had to have records on every inmate's identity. Especially those to be executed. Of course, _you_ never told anyone your name. But _he_ knew it."

Sokka grinned, "So you had records on me but no name? That's great! How did you refer to me - by some number or random description? How did the order for my execution read? 'As of such and such date, decapitate the guy in blue with the wolf's tail...'"

"You laugh at the thought of your own death? You are very strange, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe."

"Aw, Zuko told you _my_ name, too. Damn. I was enjoying my anonymity. Which reminds me. If I ever run into you again I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't blab out who I am to anyone."

"Why not? Why didn't you want those people to know who you were? Wouldn't they have been more likely to listen to you as the Avatar's friend?"

"Please. There are few things more painful than watching someone you know has the ability to think completely ignore it. C'mon, girl, use your brain. You _heard_ them - they didn't just think_ I _was in the neighborhood; everyone immediately assumed Aang - the Avatar - was also. Word gets around and the next thing you know you've got a Fire Nation attack on some poor place totally unprepared for it. Especially one so close to the front lines. Even if Aang were nearby the last thing he needs to worry about right now is protecting some township from its own inability to keep its lips buttoned!"

"So the Avatar is not nearby."

"Did I say that? Did I say otherwise? Listen, for the war's sake, Aang's whereabouts are best left unknown."

"But you know."

"Who, me? I'm just a guy with a boomerang. I got nothin' to say."

"You never did."

"Nothin's changed."

"And the prince?"

"Like I said, I got nothin' to say."

She laughed. It was an odd sound, something he had not heard in the odd month or so of her comings and goings in the tiny block of cells he and the Fire Nation prince had shared. It was strangely pleasant.

"You were full of smart-assed remarks during your interrogations. But yes, there never was anything of value."

"No big surprise you would know all about that. Did the record mention the various injuries I received during those 'interrogations'? Oh, I forgot, it was your_ father _who gave me those injuries. Did he get a citation for a job well done?"

"You survived." She didn't meet his eyes, but she didn't need to. After every such session with the prison warden Ling-Ling had appeared, silently appraising the status of the Water Tribe prisoner, occasionally providing a small basin of warm water steeped in herbs along with his meal tray, a square of clean linen tucked along one side. Sometimes a mug of something smelling pungent would be included, which he never touched. She had never met his eyes or said a word to him, but these had been among the signs in those first days that Sokka had interpreted to mean this girl did not wholly discount the wellbeing of her charges. Of course, _then_ he had not known who she was.

"So I did." Sokka was ever a sucker for other people's pain, and much as he wanted to ignore it he couldn't help but notice that Ling-Ling's bony features were even more pale beneath their powder than he had remembered, and dark circles emphasized those too-wide, slightly protuberant orbs. "Look, last time I saw Zuko he was fine, cranky as ever and telling me off for being an incompetent fool. It was only about a week ago. As far as I know, he wasn't getting ready to do anything particularly dangerous. But he's such an ass, who knows? Does that make you feel any better?"

She smiled in satisfaction. "So you didn't separate after all. He's joined the Avatar. I knew he would."

"You don't know anything of the kind. And he had no reason to do anything except stay out of his father and sister's way. Just shut up." He groaned. If she were in fact a spy he really wasn't helping anyone but the enemy.

"Tell me about him."

He paused, unsure for a moment who she was asking about.

"This time you mean the Avatar, don't you? What's to say? Aang's the most powerful bender in the world. He'll kick the Fire Lord's ass."

"Why does he need you?"

Sokka said nothing. It was not a question he hadn't pondered before, although it would seem to be an obvious one. Some things weren't for talking about. He hadn't really discussed this with Zuko and he sure as hell wasn't going to talk about it with Ling-Ling, a girl he didn't really trust even though he knew he owed her, perhaps, his life.

"I'll tell you that when you tell me why you betrayed the Fire Nation, not just in helping us escape but the others as well. If that's too hard, tell me what the hell you're doing here now. Somehow, I never got the sense that you were the traveling kind..."

"Sokka..."

"Don't even try, girl. Did you forget I watched you take a perfectly normal... wait. Strike that. Take a wholly self-absorbed arrogant shit-head and turn him into a patient, concerned, almost-prince among men for a mere drab of a girl." There was an odd viciousness to his tone that surprised even Sokka.

She hesitated, considering his words. Well, it had always been a risk, and it didn't take a particularly intelligent person to make the connections between the price she had exacted for the help she had provided in escaping the prison. That the Water Tribe boy knew about the others before the prince suggested either more collaboration between the two than she had suspected or greater intelligence on the part of the foreigner than she had expected. In either case, it was obvious that Sokka was treading a fine line between gratitude for her role in his escape and total distrust. For Ling-Ling, the response was a predictable _frisson_ of excitement.

She had, on occasion, almost regretted her decision in the seduction of the Fire Nation prince over the Water Tribe peasant. The former was the obvious choice; he was beautiful and damned. He was her prince! The exquisite roils of deception and betrayal that curled her belly and warmed her loins, even after she had soothed her heated lips against his pale skin, smoothed her calloused palms along the hardened muscles of his chest and abdomen, stretched her own length against him and enveloped his heat, another captive to her will...

But she was no fool. She was perfectly aware that Zuko's role in the seduction was cold, almost practiced, and conducted from an emotional distance that made her first rage and then laugh pathetically in the privacy of her own rooms. Still, he was glorious, in conception anyway, and if he failed at all in completion she blamed ignorance and innocence, failings she had left far behind her.

On contemplation, she was confident the Water Tribe boy would suffer from much the same failings if she had pressed him instead. Yet she also suspected that he would, unlike many young men, recognize the lack and work to amend it. She had seen enough of him to know he was patently not what he appeared. And there was no questioning his own, dark beauty. Had the Fire prince not been there, there was no doubt that this boy would have held her interest. At one point she had forgotten herself and dreamed of having both young men in her thrall. As lessons in humility went, learning otherwise was relatively painless. But her curiosity about the Water Tribe warrior, the chosen companion of the Avatar, was not assuaged. And she still wished to test her mettle against him.

For a plain girl, Ling-Ling was extraordinarily practiced in the seduction of young men. To find herself in the company of 'the one that got away' was a tremendous temptation. Her experience was, as she well knew, the result not of her beauty but of her intelligence and ability to manipulate circumstances and her chosen, ah, victim - an unfortunate word choice, but perhaps an appropriate one. She would be hard-pressed to exercise any such advantages in the current situation. Still, Ling-Ling was also far too aware of the potential for not surviving this latest betrayal of the Fire Nation to consider the risk at this point in her life an unreasonable one. That she may have misjudged him only added to the challenge.

"Why," she asked quietly. "Why did you help me?"

"You know why. You gave us the keys to the cell and his shackles. We couldn't have escaped without them. I owe you."

"No. You stepped in before you knew it was me. It could have been anyone, anyone from the_ Fire Nation_. Why?"

"Cuz I'm getting stupid as I get older, I guess. I don't know. Maybe I've spent too much time hanging out with Aang. It doesn't matter anyway."

"Yes, it does." The look she gave him from those dark, too widely-spaced eyes was unreadable, and he was reminded of those last days in the prison where she had stopped focusing completely on his fellow inmate and turned her gaze on him. It had made him uncomfortable then and it did no less now.

"So. You never answered either of _my_ questions."

"You may not believe it, but the prison was deemed irreparable. My father was transferred, demoted to acting quartermaster for the Third Battalion stationed across the river."

"Okay, I guess I can believe that. I'd be lying if I said I was sorry."

Ling-Ling shrugged. "Nothing for you to be sorry about. It's not good for my father, but the unit is actually more important and the village is much larger, so there is more opportunity for me to, um, find entertainment for myself. Anyway, I was curious. There had been no word of the Avatar, no word of you or Prince Zuko, so I thought I'd cross over the river and see if the Earth Kingdom had heard anything. I'm so used to getting around without being noticed I'm afraid it didn't occur to me that my clothes might be a problem." Ling-Ling paused for breath. It had been a long time since she had said so much at one time.

"You got yourself over the river because you were curious? You're right. I don't believe it. How'd you do it anyway?"

"There's still commerce on both sides of the river on a small scale, if you look for it. There are shellfish beds on our side that produce a superior product, or so they say. Anyway, there's a boat that brings over the night's digging every morning for the market here. They gave me a ride over when I showed up with a bucket-load of large scallops and offered to share my profit."

"Is that boat still around? How did you plan to get back?" He kept his eyes on hers. She wasn't telling the whole truth, of that he was sure. But he couldn't say if the falsehood was through omission or otherwise. The story sounded reasonable and fit pretty well with his own experience. He began to question the need for seeing her back to Fire Nation territory. Ling-Ling was obviously quite capable on her own. "Won't you be missed?"

"The shellfish boat made the return trip as soon as they could fill the hold with rice wine for the garrison on the other side - it's the bribe for allowing the trade to continue. I didn't know how long it would take me to get any news, and I assumed where there was one boat there would be another. As for whether or not I'll be missed, that kind of depends on whether or not my father drinks enough of the bottle I left by his chair when he comes home this evening, doesn't it?" Ling-Ling smiled inwardly. She could see him weighing her words, and it pleased her to note his wariness. For all that Ling-Ling relished the freedom that her persona as a homely, caretaker drudge to her father had given her over the years, there was also a sense of affirmation in having someone treat her with highly focused attention and respect. When, she wondered, had he started watching her so closely in the prison; was it after he became aware of the flirtation with the prince, or could it have even been before?

"Nice relationships you people have with your parents."

"You shouldn't make generalizations about people."

"I admit, my experience with the Fire Nation is pretty limited. I mean, beyond having its soldiers breathing down my neck and doing me grievous bodily harm at every opportunity. Hardly anyone has actually bothered to converse with me, if you know what I mean. But what little I have seen is a pretty sad commentary on Fire Nation family life."

"I think I had forgotten what a smartass you are. Maybe I was better off with the Earth Kingdom soldiers."

"Shall I escort you back to them?"

"No, thanks, I'll just be going back across the river now."

"Sorry, Sweetheart, I'm still not satisfied as to what exactly you're doing here. I can't believe you were so infatuated with Zuko that you'd risk your life for the possibility of hearing some rumor about him. That's just nuts!"

"Why is it so hard to believe? The two of you changed my life by destroying the prison. Yes, there were others before, but no one who's going to change the world! Why shouldn't I believe that was something special? Look at you, you left your home behind to follow the Avatar. Why shouldn't I take a lousy day out of my life to find out more about you?" There was a fierceness in her voice that she was not used to allowing even in her thoughts. "Do you really think I'm a spy? Do you really think anyone in the Fire Nation believes I'm capable of such a thing?"

He shook his head in wonder. "I don't know what to think. I'm sure no one has a clue as to what you're capable of, and I count myself in that group as well. So you're right, it wouldn't occur to anyone to use you as a spy. Whatever you're doing, you're doing for yourself."

"Well, it's nice to know you can think, water boy. I was beginning to wonder after all." She folded her arms in front of her.

"Ouch. So maybe I deserved that."

For long minutes they glared at one another. Sokka caved first. It tickled his sense of humor that this wisp of a girl had flummoxed the fire nation for several years, long enough to allow not just himself and the Fire Nation prince to escape its prison but others as well, at the whim of a mere girl. The occasionally bitter irony of owing his freedom to the same girl was eased by the closely held belief that he would have, finally, managed his own escape even if he couldn't have saved Zuko as well. Since he honestly held little love for the Fire Nation prince, this was more than mere cold comfort.

Sokka was a clever boy. He wholly understood that had this Fire Nation girl been a beauty the furor for her capture would not have ended with a few stumbles among cabbages, and equally understood the folly of assuming only beauty was dangerous. Had he not already in his heart exonerated her from any ill will he would have marveled at the cleverness of the Fire Nation in its choice of spies. Now he reveled in its lack of intelligence for not recognizing a potential resource.

"Why does anyone allow you to even live?" She asked, and perfect honesty brought a strange sweetness to her voice that clouded Sokka's vision of her features.

"You got a problem with me being alive?"

Her lips twitched. And she found herself laughing yet again. She never really laughed, and yet the Water Tribe boy had incited her laughter twice in less than an hour.

"No. Why should I care if every other word you say is pure shit..."

"Ah, so there _are_ a few pearls among the swine?"

"You presume too much, peasant," She grasped at her dignity, but knew full well it had slipped beyond recall.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Grr. Still dealing with writer's block. So instead of working on my other stories I'm dabbling with this one. I'm reconciled to this being read by very few. And really, if you haven't read "Prison Conversations" this will make no sense whatsoever. I'm not a big fan of OC's generally myself, and I made it quite clear that this was a story in which the only characters would be Sokka and an OC, so only those few who found Ling-Ling a little too compelling are going to find this at all interesting. Also, I'm letting things get a bit darker than usual. Maybe it's all that criminal law I'm reading…

Disclaimer: Who me? Attempting to claim ownership or generate income therefrom? No chance. So go away and leave me to meander among my delusions…

Crossing the Line: Chapter 1

Sokka watched Ling-Ling struggle to regain the mask of dull indifference she had worn so well at the prison, and considered how he could continue to keep her off-balance. It was, he was sure, the only way he would ever keep the upper hand with her. It also offered, he noted, a view of a far more appealing side to her, one that he been wholly unaware might have existed.

He well remembered the girl they had taken for a drudge bringing meal trays to their cells, the timid scuttling walk, and her downcast eyes as she spoon-fed the fettered and furious fire-bender. With her hair in a careless knot and shapeless robes, she had appeared half oblivious to her surroundings, as if it took all her intelligence to concentrate on the task at hand. He couldn't remember what had made him realize that she was attracted to the fugitive prince, but subsequent events made him wonder if she hadn't been attempting to communicate this to Zuko all along. Zuko had just been too proud to acknowledge it.

Perhaps it had only been Sokka's desperate seeking for some means to escape that had made him notice her at all. In Zuko's absence, he may well have attempted to befriend her on his own, although he doubted it would have occurred to him to push beyond instilling in her a sympathy for him and willingness to help. At least, so he told himself. As it happened, Zuko _was_ in the cell next door, and the charms of a foreign-born common warrior were no match for those of the handsome brooding prince. Pragmatic as always, Sokka had adapted, and he had no regrets that Ling-Ling's infatuation with the other boy had resulted in the means of escape for both of them. Granted, it wouldn't have surprised him if she felt some annoyance that they had taken her help and extended it to half-destroy the prison complex itself, freeing the other prisoners as well. Still, she seemed fairly sanguine at how things had turned out. And for that, he gave her credit. But could he believe it?

The girl sitting on the bench set in the curving wall still wore her hair carelessly, and with her robes now inside out the fit was even less flattering than before. The angularity of her face hadn't changed, and her eyes were still too widely set, her lips too firm in a mouth too large for a narrow jaw. What was the difference, then?

Ah, the eyes sparkled, whether in amusement or anger didn't seem to matter, but they gave overwhelming life and intelligence to her expression. Those firm lips twitching hinted at generosity, and Sokka remembered something Zuko had once remarked on, almost in passing, regarding Ling-Ling's _more subtle_ qualities. Perhaps it shouldn't have been so surprising that she had in fact won, if not affection, respect and a kind of allegiance from the fire prince.

Sokka gave himself a good mental shake. He did not need to push his contemplations any further along that particular road. He suddenly remembered how limited his own experience with girls actually was, and how the girl before him had figuratively eaten young men like him for breakfast, time and again.

Since it was unlikely that she was here to do any harm, and since she was obviously so capable, was it really necessary for him to see her any further? After all, he had extricated her from the Earth Kingdom soldiers; surely his debt to her was now paid.

"You know, you're right. I _do _presume too much. I can see you're fine now, and we both have things that need doing. You need to get back across the river and I need to be on my way," Sokka decided it was time to bring this encounter to a close.

"No, wait. Please." Her hand shot out to clasp his arm frantically as he attempted to rise. "Don't go. Don't leave me alone – not yet!"

Without really thinking about it, he sank back down, allowing Ling-Ling to draw herself closer to him, and covered the hand on his arm with his own in a comforting gesture. It was done with the instinct of long practice, family born. And, again without thinking, he spoke the first words that came to mind.

"Hey. Trust me. I really _can't_ tell you any more about Zuko," Sokka said gently. "And it's not just that you're Fire Nation. I couldn't tell _anyone_, really. It's just not safe. Not safe for him, and not for anyone who knows."

"He's going to rebel against the Fire Lord, his father, isn't he?" There was a fire burning in those eyes again, and Sokka wondered at the passion contained there.

"Who knows? Maybe he'd just like a quiet, peaceful life somewhere he can forget about his family." With what he knew of Zuko's life, Sokka wouldn't have blamed him if this were exactly what Zuko dreamed of.

"He can't. He's too dangerous."

"'He who isn't for me is against me'," Sokka said automatically in response, her words following his own thoughts with uncanny precision.

"Exactly. Unless the Fire Lord knows where he is, Prince Zuko will always be a threat to him. With all the good will in the world towards his father himself, others could still rebel in his name." Ling-Ling spoke bitterly, and with a certain sense of urgency.

"You've been thinking about this, and you want to find him to warn him," Sokka's own comfort level began to increase as the rightness of this deduction filled in some of the gaps that had confused his senses ever since running across Ling-Ling.

"Yes."

He smiled at her. "Ling-Ling, Zuko's no dummy. And even if he were, he does have maybe one or two smart friends watching his back. He's quite aware of the problem. Hey, his father gave him a death sentence, remember? The guy can put two and two together."

"He has no _choice _anymore. He has to rebel, or die." There was a note of real fear in her voice.

Sokka thought briefly about the likelihood of Zuko's accepting death if it would restore honor in his father's eyes. His smile turned grim at the lack of logic in such a prospect, and the time during which logic had had no hold on the prince's thinking. He also thought about Zuko's other choice.

"It's war-time, Ling-Ling. Any of us could die. As long as we're doing the right thing, maybe it doesn't matter."

She looked at him, and he watched the light in her eyes palpably dim, like a door closing. He found himself holding the hand of the girl who, less than a month before, had seen him as an obstacle hindering her enthrallment of the Fire Nation prince. He shivered, and carefully removed her hand from its now relaxed grip on his arm, placing it gently on her other hand in her lap. He slid back along the bench.

"You are encouraging him in this," she said, flatly.

Sokka sighed, exasperated. "As if he'd listen to anything I said. But look, what do you expect? I'm Water Tribe, remember? I _want _this war to end with the Fire Nation's defeat. I want Ozai and his crazy daughter _dead_. I do! I want _anyone_ who thinks the Fire Nation should rule over the rest of us dead as well. Hell, I'll kill Zuko myself if he starts thinking like that again…"

"You did it! You _did_ turn him against his people!"

"I did nothing of the sort. Shit, I wish I could! Things would be so much easier if that stubborn, stiff-necked git would just accept that the Fire Nation deserves to be beaten into the ground. Aagh." Sokka buried his face in his hands.

Why was it that he was the one who always ended up having to talk to people from the Fire Nation? He _hated_ the Fire Nation, always had. Hell, they'd killed his mother, stolen from him the first love of his young life. He didn't want to _talk_ to Fire Nation people – he wanted to bust their heads! He wanted Aang to go into scary glow-it-up mode and mow down the legions of fire-benders like a farmer winnowing hay!

Until he remembered the sickening crack his war-club had made on the skull of one of the invaders blocking his and Yue's way back to the Oasis all those months ago, or the metallic tang of blood in his nose and the way it had soaked his clothes, staining the blue first bright red then dull black, as he had tried to hack his way through the soldiers that finally overwhelmed him the day that had resulted in his imprisonment. How he'd worn those clothes, stiff with the caked and dried blood, for days before this girl now facing him with those accusing eyes had brought him a blanket to wrap around himself while she washed those clothes clean. Or when he remembered the anguish in a twelve-year-old's eyes as he contemplated the sheer magnitude of destruction he had brought to the Fire Navy, aided by the Ocean Spirit. And then? Talk seemed infinitely preferable.

Ling-Ling appeared to withdraw within herself, an effect Sokka sensed even with his head lowered and his mind consumed with his own thoughts.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't really mean that. I mean, I did, about Ozai and Azula, but not about you. Not about your people. Not really." He looked up at her, drawn back into a corner of the bench and the growing shadows. She didn't move, and he wasn't sure if she was paying him any attention now or not.

"Okay, then. Well. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry," he attempted a grin, which came out rather lop-sided, "So I'm gonna go see if I can come up with something to eat. I'll bring back whatever I find. If you're here, fine. If not, well, that's okay too. I mean, you do whatever you need to. We're good, as far as I'm concerned."

As he walked away he thought about what he had just said, and how stupid it had sounded in his own ears. And it did not occur to him to wonder why it mattered anyway.

--------------------------

She followed him with her eyes until he disappeared around a corner, noting the hunched shoulders even as he attempted to hold his back straight and tall.

There had never been any question in her mind of leaving before his return. Certainly not now, now that she had disarmed his lack of trust in her through a simple display of obsession with the Fire Prince.

Ling-Ling allowed her lip to curl in satisfaction once he was out of sight. It was impossible luck to run into him again. How could she not take every advantage of the opportunity, once it had been given her? After all, there were interesting layers to the Water Tribe boy that fascinated Ling-Ling. His outburst had not really surprised her; she had been attempting to provoke it, in fact.

She knew he was capable of violence. She remembered how very _much_ blood had washed out of his clothes, how many times she had had to change the water in the basin. She remembered how it had streaked his face days later, and his total lack of awareness of it. She also remembered how his hand had trembled when she had brought him a damp cloth after that first particularly brutal session with her father - he had brought the cloth back to his face to look at it after first wiping what he had obviously only expected to be sweat and grime from his brow. He'd known the blood was not his own.

That had been before Prince Zuko had arrived, of course, when her attention was still wholly focused on the new prisoner and his possibilities. She had been thrilled to learn that the grim-faced warrior so covered in blood was one of the Avatar's companions. At first he had seemed in a bit of a daze, but once the interrogations started that had disappeared, to be replaced by a hostility exhibited through biting wit and otherwise studious ignoring of everyone who approached his cell, for whatever purpose.

She had noticed his eyes taking in everything and everyone, though. And she had wondered how long it would take for him to become desperate enough to notice her. After all, eventually, they all did. And that would be the beginning.

When the Fire Prince had arrived her attention had been distracted, and for some days she had found herself unable to choose between them. She had even wondered if she should let fate decide for her.

The animosity between the two young men was confusing; hadn't the Fire Lord declared his son a fugitive because he believed the prince had allied himself with the Avatar? That instead of capturing him Prince Zuko had aided him to evade the Fire Nation? But there was no mistaking the angry glances or harsh words the two traded.

The prince had been indifferent to the beatings taken by the Water Tribe boy during interrogation. Instead of ignoring the prince, as he had ignored everyone and everything else, the warrior had watched with disdain as the prince took his own share of abuse, taunting him at any given opportunity in ways often not clear to the observer, but clearly telling by the prince's reaction. No, these two had not been allies.

Perhaps, instead, they were competitors? It was a question she never did resolve, but the fact that they had escaped together and brought utter mayhem to the prison on just the vague basis of her scattered warnings, had assured her that some sort of truce had been brokered. And it was the mayhem that convinced her that the warrior had somehow assumed some kind of ascendancy over the prince. That and the element of calculation she had caught in his gaze in those last days, the underhanded and not subtle blackmail he practiced upon her.

All of which, of course, had drawn her eye back to him.

There was a ruthlessness to the foreigner that appealed to her. A ruthlessness that ran totally at odds with the young man that had come to the aid of an enemy national, an apparent stranger. Whereas _that _act resonated with the hand that trembled at the sight of another's blood, that took her own hand when she appeared distressed just now. Oh yes, he was fascinating!

Ling-Ling stretched herself, considering her next moves carefully. There was no cell to keep him captive, and she knew better than to think she could charm him with graceful moves or coy glances. And there was so little time! Perhaps even only the next few hours. Surely it simply wasn't possible to reap any particular victory from meeting Sokka again, beyond the hollow knowledge that he acknowledged a dept to her and that, yes, he recognized some little claim she had on Fire Prince.

The plain-featured girl closed down with an almost audible snap, the smile gone as if it had never existed. She hadn't spent the better part of the last three years worrying about the possible! What was merely _possible_ held no meaning for her, since she had long ago left it behind her.

Sokka had been perfectly accurate in his assessment of her, and she was not blind to the essential elements of that assessment. She felt no particular loyalty to the Fire Nation, hadn't for years. Not since words like "loyalty" and "honor" had ceased to have concrete meaning to her, along with the words "piety" and "fealty" or "family".

Nor did she feel any particular loyalty to anyone else, for that matter. Except for her little adventures, her games with selected prison inmates, Ling-Ling had been no more than numb for so many years. Despite the very real life-or-death aspect of those games for the characters involved, only recently had it even occurred to her that anything she could do would have any impact on anyone else, let alone the world at large. Ling-Ling would never admit, to herself or anyone else, that she had been living her life as if, for the most part, she were merely sleeping and waiting to wake up to a new reality.

As such, her special prisoners were almost creations of her own mind, and so of no real import.

Had she truly imagined that the warrior and the prince would take her comments on the prison's tense atmosphere and use them to destroy it? Surely not. Surely she had merely meant to warn them to be careful in making their escape, and had never intended to hint to them at the possibilities such a situation offered. It would have taken an extraordinary lack of morality to imagine such a thing, to hope for utter chaos to bloom from the seeds of dissention. Seeds that she had planted.

The shock of prison guards laid out in rows with wounds to be dressed, limbs hacked and faces gouged, and still others similarly displayed but merely for identification and record-keeping, of buildings blackened and ruined beyond repair, of complete upheaval of all that she had ever known in life, all resulting from her own half careless words, had ripped the veil of unreality from her consciousness in a way that personal pain and, yes, pleasure, and not sufficed to do.

Had she really crossed the river from the safety of the Fire Nation to the Earth Kingdom, dressed in blatant red, truly oblivious to the risk she was exposing herself? Of course not. Ling-Ling was seeking out life as she had only ever understood it, in risking all for the moment. Did she honestly expect she would meet again either of the two who had brought life so vigorously back into her life? Again, of course not.

But there was no way that, having done so, she would let him slip away again too easily.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N This is way A/U and I can't imagine the true owners of Avatar bothering to harass me about writing this fic. That said, I've not commercial interests in the following, and acknowledge others' full interests. So leave me alone.

And now it is Sokka's turn to consider his current situation, one-on-one with the ugly girl who'd helped him escape from a Fire Nation prison….

Chapter 3

It was easy enough to slip into Sokka's usual guise of semi-apolitical traveler stocking up on supplies as he walked the secondary, less frequented market on the far side of this small port city. Second nature took over as he casually queried the vendors about rumors of Fire Nation movements and community sentiment. As he found his earlier data expanded upon and subtly shifted in perspective he found himself grudgingly grateful for Ling-Ling's having forced him into exploring something other than the main market for supplies and information.

A _very_ small-town boy himself, he'd half-forgotten some of the lessons of the last year's trek across the world. Such as, the larger a population, the greater the likelihood was that information would flow across it in different currents and eddies. Only a fool would think the flow of the river would be confined to its main stem.

And a mighty course like that rising along the walls within which he and Ling-Ling had found refuge would undoubtedly breed as many currents of opinion as it did branches along the delta.

A tiny voice suggested to Sokka that he had been looking for an excuse to delay his return to Aang and the others. Sokka preferred to think tiny voices suggested tiny ideas – worthy to be dismissed. Well. Mostly

He prided himself on being unfailingly honest with, at least, himself in the assessments he made without other's knowledge. So, he deliberately considered Ling-Ling's admittedly few physical graces, weighed them against what he was quite prepared to concede were formidable mental assets, and assessed his own response to her.

The end result? At this point in time, given his belief in her still lingering obsession with Prince Zuko, he thought he was reasonably safe to allot some limited time to assuring her safety. No doubt she intrigued him, and that was an admitted attraction, but it was certainly _not_ enough to cloud his mind against his responsibilities. Especially since he was still pretty sure that no amount of animation or generosity could make up for Ling-Ling's severely plain features.

For a mere fraction of a second, his mind lingered again on Zuko's oblique comment back in prison regarding Ling-Ling's possessing "qualities" as he envisioned what those ill-fitting robes of hers might have concealed… before he aborted that line of thinking with a harsh laugh. Sokka'd always suspected the prince of using that comment to somehow get back at him for setting Zuko up as the fall guy in that absurd reverse-seduction that resulted in their mutual escape.

Sokka had dismissed the whole concept within days of their escape from prison. It had never occurred to him that he'd ever have reason to consider Ling-Ling's assets from other than memory's perspective and, frankly, the whole idea pissed him off from the outset!

As he surrendered hard-won coin to the remaining vendors of cooked meats and vegetables, he took note of those calling for labor to generate the next morning's offerings. It was, by now, habit on his part. It never hurt to have a bolt-hole established in the way of such easy camouflage.

Granted, they were looking for laborers willing to work the pre-sunrise shift unloading shipboard holds and farmers' carts; Sokka's least favorite shift. Ah well, he'd done worse. And while he still assumed he'd be long-gone by the time such labor was called upon, it was helpful to know he could count on being relatively invisible by virtue of being able to blend in if he found some need to stay.

Having already excused himself, Sokka ignored his reasons for noting the availability of work – and cover – for staying beyond his self-imposed twenty-four hour limit in the city.

Ling-Ling reminded him of his odd allegiance to the Fire Prince. Worse, she reminded him of a debt to yet another native of the Fire Nation that he had not really ever intended at the outset to repay. He wanted to believe that pulling her from potential spotlight by the Earth Kingdom was sufficient recompense for her allowing him to escape her father's prison along with her lover, Prince Zuko.

Sokka _hated_ being duty-bound to someone from the Fire Nation (Even as he considered it, his scowl dropped the price of the near-day-old flatbread in half yet again with this current vendor). He had enough of _that_ in his confused interaction with Zuko. And from that he'd learned that unhinging oneself from such duty-debts with the Fire Nation was anything but straight-forward.

Great.

For his own peace of mind, if would be best to not even worry about Ling-Ling's perception of these things. As he bought sweet melon to supplement a fish stew, arguing about the vendor's luck in finding a buyer for fruit that would be disdained by the morning's buyers, he clamped down on his too active imagination. At least, where it came to Ling-Ling.

As he shopped, Sokka attempted to concentrate on his usual assessment of Aang's position in the local situation. This had largely agreed with the opinion given in the main market, which was reassuring.

He also caught an interesting current hitherto unheard in the Earth Kingdom regarding another player in the world's affairs. One only tangentially related to Aang.

Sokka had habitually ignored much of what he heard regarding the Avatar's _companions_ on these excursions. He'd learned some time ago it was generally hard on his ego. Toph's power and Katara's virtuosity, when combined with Aang's brilliance, left little scope for his own cleverness as far as public relations went. After all, who cared how carefully chosen the canyon site for the convenient rock fall or opportune flood that somehow managed to avoid all damage to other than Fire Nation assets? And generals or captains were even less inclined to share credit for a well-conceived hit than his friends.

So he almost overlooked attributions regarding a few acts of sabotage that he knew full well were his own -- until tugged by the odd note of surprise and excitement disengaged from the Avatar. Nonetheless, he was at least as tickled by the apparent source of each strike against the Fire Lord as if it had been attributed to Aang or his companions.

After his period of incarceration with Prince Zuko, Sokka had found this new actor for title billing in some of his more carefully-wrought plans fit well with prior "unattributed history". If Sokka now and then left some indication of the Fire Prince's presence in some particularly spectacular act of sabotage he'd managed to pull off, well, it wasn't as if the prince was around himself to deny blame, or, for that matter, credit. Sokka was quite sure that only good could come of dividing Fire Nation loyalties.

And how conveniently the leadership of that nation had fallen into his plans.

Maybe it wasn't the good, the bad, and the ugly – he'd never heard tale regarding the Fire Lord's looks, and he was honestly hard-pressed to call Zuko actually 'good', but still…

Now he smirked in consideration of those weeks in which he'd learned key elements of the prince's personality that could, so easily, color any particular act with a signature likely to be attributed to the Fire Prince. Granted, Zuko would almost certainly have gutted him upon discovery of such a deliberate perversion of his reputation.

But Sokka reassured himself that all was fair in war, and took particular care to leave Zuko's imprint on only a few of the most obviously 'high-minded' of his own escapades and, probably more importantly from the prince's perspective, those that involved no Fire Nation deaths. He tried to tell himself he owed nothing to the young man he'd spent scant weeks with across a wall of bars, but his soul knew better.

After all, in the time that Zuko had tracked them across the world, he'd never actually threatened them with death. And in their time together in prison and afterwards, he'd extended himself to aid Sokka, no questions asked. That was that. So, Sokka had, from time to time, imprinted some act of sabotage against the Fire Nation with Zuko's name. But never unless he could first convince himself that at least some element of the Fire Nation would applaud such action. And every time he did so, he tried to leave some signal reminding Zuko, if no one else, of the Forty-first, that single act of heroism that had first tied their fates together by sending the young prince in exile and in search of the Avatar. It was his own attempt to communicate with Zuko in a means he hoped the other boy would understand and, perhaps, forgive.

So he hadn't been entirely straightforward with Ling-Ling. He'd not actually managed to set Zuko to act against his father. He didn't in fact hope that such a thing was possible. He almost, oddly enough, rather hoped it was not. But he was quite prepared to use Zuko to help instigate the fall of his nation's government.

Over time, Sokka's own perspective regarding right and wrong, love and hate, had evolved. In his time with the Fire Nation prince, he'd developed a terrible sympathy for his companion's situation, completely at odds with his own morality and yet still strangely in sympathy. As he had attempted to reassure Ling-Ling as to Zuko's current prospects he'd been unusually honest; he truly believed that Zuko wished nothing more than to disappear into simple obedience to duty. And he also equally understood how striking the contrast lay between what he must inexorably see as the differing paths duty required of the Fire Prince.

"Damned glad I'm not him," Sokka mused to himself. "Can't imagine what it must feel like to have your loyalties torn. Bad enough having to play good guy, all innocent and above board, most of the time, and still stick it to the Fire Nation in these, well, other ways that nobody ever knows about…"

His shopping finally finished, Sokka shouldered his bag to conceal the shudder his inner thoughts engendered.

He admitted to himself that he'd half hoped Ling-Ling would be long gone when he returned to their hidey-hole along the city wall. Granted, some of that may have been related to the somewhat limited extent of his provisions for the evening's fare. Sokka had far too much experience at food deprivation to welcome shortcomings to his dinner plate in any case.

Still, there was something reassuring about the dull mop of Ling-Ling's hair protruding from the shadows of the wall's curve. There had been something very unsatisfying in the way they had left her behind in the prison. Oh yes, it had been a huge relief – neither of them understood her in the least, and the apparent ease with which she'd seemed to express interest in both of them at the same time had left Zuko and Sokka wholly undone.

Neither boy could explain it with anything in their experience or understanding, and it left both of them with their skin crawling.

But for Sokka, it had also left him intrigued.

He was, he would have admitted to any who'd posed the question, somewhat unusual. He envisioned for himself a simple, linear chain of affection and loyalty connecting himself to a future wife. At the same time, for all his lack of experience or observation otherwise, Sokka's imagination easily created other, more convoluted possibilities. And Ling-Ling had given Sokka what he suspected was his first concrete example of someone who had explored some of those different avenues.

It was the scientist, the anthropologist, in Sokka who wanted to reach out to Ling-Ling, side by side with the penitent seeking forgiveness for the wrongs he'd done to her, who brought forth a crooked grin to greet the equally crooked smile of welcome from the Fire Nation girl huddled against the barrier of the Earth Kingdom city's stone wall.

"Well then, you're still here. Did you think to keep your head up for hawkers selling something to eat?" he asked, confident in his own experience. "Thought not. Wouldn't be many along here anyway, so you'd have to take what you could get unless you were willing to venture away from the wall."

Ling-Ling rolled her eyes. "You told me you were going for food, whether I stayed or not. Seemed to me I was best served waiting to see what you'd come up with. Odds are I'll be lucky to make it back across the river to Fire Nation territory before morning anyway."

"Let's see. Your dad must've kicked my ass for every couple bites I ate in that damned prison. I'm thinking you still owe me even after helping me out of that hell-hole." It was a reach. He was curious as to her response, and had no intention of attempting to defend his assertion.

When a harsh blush bloomed across her features, Sokka felt guilty, biting his cheek in chagrin.

"Ah, so you really _are _a blackmailer," Ling-Ling breathed, relief apparent in her voice as her color returned to normal.

"Damnit! I am not! Oh fuckit! Whatever, why should I care what Fire Nation thinks anyway!" And Sokka pulled out of his pack and carryall his garnerings for their evening meal. At this point, he could see no way of presenting it to her without appearing to be attempting to buy something from her, either future silence or current submission. Neither was acceptable. With an expression of annoyance he dumped it all on the bench and strode away to look out at the broad river, back to both girl and food.

_That's a first_, he thought to himself. _Since when did I turn my back to food? Or, come to think of it, to a threat?_

Almost reluctantly, Sokka looked over his shoulder at Ling-Ling.

Who had, very obligingly, kneeled in the dirt before the bench on which he'd laid his offerings for their evening meal, one hand partially outstretched to explore the various wrappings on the tea, rice, stew, fruit, etc. that he'd collected.

He shuddered. His sister would have slugged him, hard, for implying that he'd accomplished anything other than the minimum expected in his provisions. They would then both have laughed heartily, thankful for even a mouthful. But that was based on experience and a lifetime together. Somehow it rankled to see this alien girl on her knees giving the appearance of thankfulness for whatever he'd provided. Maybe it had to do with the juxtaposition in his mind of her hand on the tray of slop the prison had offered as food as it waited to execute him. Somehow, his mind had a hard time equating the woman who had offered him freedom with the drudge who had shoved a tray into his cell.

More importantly, he couldn't reconcile either image with the girl now reaching out to him.

As he thought about it, Sokka realized he was in no position to rationally evaluate his position regarding Ling-Ling and the future.

_Fuck! This was a first!_

Sokka was superbly rational. Even in prison he'd seen himself as competent to function. He'd hated being caught by the Fire Nation; had assumed he'd die there and, even then, started looking for opportunities to escape. With the appearance of the Fire Nation prince he had allowed his goal to be temporarily sidetracked. In time, he'd seen Zuko's incarceration with him as an opportunity, something oddly fated, to the young man who didn't believe in fate.

But NOTHING in Sokka's experience had ever suggested that fate could ever be reconciled. In short, Sokka believed Ling-Ling was already damned. Nothing he could do could change that.

Then again…

Hadn't Zuko himself appeared somehow worthy of redemption?

Hadn't Ling-Ling had some part to play in the prince's redemption?

And who was Sokka to judge the fates of others? Hell, he KNEW he'd been a bit of an ass on more than one occasion. And perhaps the spirits didn't look so kindly on bloodshed – ah gods, he had had opportunity to shed rather a lot of it, and he was still hardly more than a man…

Well, yes. There it was. He had to act as a man, and what did that call for now? A girl, without protectors, was in need of help. That was simple enough, stripped away of her nationality, now, wasn't it? Sokka chuckled. He strongly suspected that this simple process of rationalization was the final road to madness, along which far too many had trod to bear any particular witness one way or another. Still, there it was. No obvious escape, as far as he could see…

Sokka turned around, facing Ling-Ling and the collection of food-stuffs he'd garnered from the secondary market.

"What do you think? The stew smelled pretty good to me and, damn, some of that fruit is at the height of its ripeness, give a few hours. Don't you think? I mean, it all looks pretty good to me, so you eat what you want, and I'll just take what you don't want. Okay? Sound good to you…?"

Ling-Ling had eaten without hesitation

Not that his current situation offered any such opportunities to Sokka. He grimaced as he considered how Ling-Ling would have appreciated any such effort. It was obvious that she was a creature of caprice, only just learning how far fetched the world was to conforming to the world of the Fire Nation prison.

For all his cleverness, Sokka was actually a fairly straightforward person. He was perfectly willing to assume all manner of deviousness in battle with the Fire Nation. As a result, he trusted virtually no one he came across, if they weren't a member of the Water Tribe, without good reason. Hell, he was ready to look askance at King Bumi on the least provocation.

But he trusted Ling-Ling.

Or, at least, he trusted her enough to lay his own neck on the line for her. It seemed little enough, given that she'd done as much for him, with honestly no reason beyond some absurd infatuation with the Fire Prince that he could, in theory, have betrayed.

Sokka thought rather well of himself, perhaps too well. But he wasn't stupid. It was one thing for a Water Tribe princess to become infatuated with him – he'd worked hard to woo her and hell, he'd swear he'd loved her as well!

It was a far different thing for a Fire Nation girl to indicate any particular interest in him. Especially one who'd already more than demonstrated a preference for Zuko. And while both boys had noticed Ling-Ling's overtures to him in those last days in the prison, neither of them had been able to determine her purpose in doing so.

He had gained a distinct impression that she was prepared to resume those overtures,

And now, their paths had crossed again. He pretended to be oblivious to that aspect of their interaction, but it was this awareness that had him second-guessing his own motives as well. He hated to think he'd become such an arrogant ass as to believe he could, or should, use charm when ordinary appeals to good nature and common decency should prevail. Especially when he had no intent of seeing through any implied promises the use of such charm might make.

With Ling-Ling he'd presented himself as an opportunist. It had fit with a plan to balance out her interest in and fear for the fortunes of his fellow prisoner, Zuko.

Zuko had said this hint of danger had attracted Ling-Ling at least as much as his own romantic image as the exiled prince. Sokka had begun to suspect that this had been a particularly astute observation of Zuko's, and had been immensely relieved when their escape had apparently relieved him of any further need to deal with Ling-Ling.

Yet here he was with the dilemma that was Ling-Ling presented anew.

One element of his brain trusted her, based on their previous history. Perhaps _because_ of that previous history, something about the way she had reached out to him didn't quite fit. Just _what _was she trying to do, anyway.

On one level, it was a stupid question. After all, hadn't he and Zuko figured out themselves that Ling-Ling was a risk-taker? As such, with the absence of Zuko – her preferred target – out of reach, was it really remarkable that she should consider Sokka as an alternative?

If he were willing to consider it, the possibility was, in fact, obvious. Upon which Sokka became immediately embarrassed. No young man enjoyed thinking of himself as second choice, and even before they had escaped from prison Ling-Ling had made it clear that she had, at least, started considering Sokka as a successor to her affections regarding Zuko.

Damn it. For all his vaunted ability to think things through objectively, he was caught up on contemplations of a damned girl. Worse yet, she wasn't even pretty!


End file.
